All-22: What We Saw From Nick Foles

Play 1: Based on last week and the preseason, arm strength doesn’t appear to be an issue for Foles. And he shows confidence in his arm with the throws he attempts.. That can sometimes get quarterbacks into trouble. But it can also be a good thing. On this second-quarter throw, he hit Brent Celek for an 8-yard gain.

You can see it’s a tight window with three Cowboys defenders nearby. And you can also see that Foles is already beginning to throw the ball before Celek has turned around. That requires timing and trust between quarterback and receiver. Foles fired on the money, even though the play got called back for a Demetress Bell holding call.

Play 2: In the third quarter, the Cowboys showed blitz with six at the line of scrimmage.

They ended up dropping the two defensive tackles into coverage and only rushing four. But even so, Foles knew the Cowboys had just one safety deep, and he had Riley Cooper one-on-one on the outside.

Cooper ran a go-route down the left sideline, and Foles got rid of the ball in under two seconds. It was incomplete, but they drew a defensive holding penalty. Good recognition, good job of getting the ball out quickly.

Play 3: You know I love stats, but Foles’ touchdown to Jeremy Maclin is a good example of why numbers don’t always tell the story. At first glance, he threw a 44-yard bomb. That’s great. But looking at it more closely, there were some issues on the play.

Let’s start with the good. Foles did a nice job of moving to his right and creating space. But the first photo shows when the ball probably should have come out.

Maclin’s open at about the 24-yard-line. The next photo shows when Foles finally gets rid of it.

Maclin is now at about the 12-yard-line.

Also, the throw was not a great one. My guess is Foles probably wishes he’d have thrown it more to the middle of the field. He led Maclin back to the sideline a bit, and since the ball hung in the air for awhile, cornerback Morris Claiborne was able to race over and get pretty close to breaking it up.

Claiborne actually hit Maclin in the back after he came down with the reception. An incompletion here would have been a huge missed opportunity. Of course, the result ended up being fine – a 44-yard touchdown. But good and bad on the play.

Play 4: It was pretty clear that Foles’ goal was to be decisive and get rid of the ball quickly. That meant a couple missed opportunities. For example, here he dumped the ball off to LeSean McCoy, even though it looked he had ample space to hit DeSean Jackson, as the safety played very deep.

Of course, the Eagles were up 14-10 at this point, so I’m guessing Foles wanted to take the high-percentage throw.

Play 5: Here, the Eagles are set up with two tight ends and a running back, so the Cowboys have just one safety deep. Maclin’s the lone receiver to the left side and has a one-on-one matchup.

Foles gives a subtle fake to the right, which gets the safety to take a couple steps in that direction, and then lofts one to Maclin.

Incomplete, but the Eagles drew a 20-yard pass interference penalty.

Play 6: This might have been Foles’ best throw of the day, and it didn’t even count because of a penalty on King Dunlap. The Cowboys only rushed three, and Foles didn’t have anyone open, but he stepped up and scrambled to his right.

He targeted Damaris Johnson. As you can see in the photo, Johnson is not really open, but Foles is taking a shot.

The throw has to be perfect. High degree of difficulty. And Foles nails it. This was a big point in the game too. The Eagles were up 14-10 and faced a 3rd-and-5. Like I said, the play came back because of a penalty, but Foles made a big-time throw here.

Overall, as I said earlier in the week, there were good moments and bad moments. And we have to take into account that coming into a game cold is different than going into the game after having spent all week as the starter. We’ll learn more about what Foles brings to the table Sunday afternoon against the Redskins.

You May Also Like

Be respectful of our online community and contribute to an engaging conversation. We reserve the right to ban impersonators and remove comments that contain personal attacks, threats, or profanity, or are flat-out offensive. By posting here, you are permitting Philadelphia magazine and Metro Corp. to edit and republish your comment in all media.

http://www.facebook.com/TomSchaeffer23 Tom Schaeffer

Some of the throws and plays this guy made were very encouraging, including the downfield pass to Avant that hit him in the facemask. All these national media guys on your earlier round-up story were being pretty hard with the snap judgements on him after two quarters. Let’s not forget how lucky he got with the penalty on the interception early in the fourth though. That was a bad, bad throw. And there was another one that should have been a pick-six that the Cowboy defender dropped. I still think he looks like he can hold his own out there though. He didn’t look scared like many backups do when they get that first tatse of regular-season playing time.

alnguyen386

On the TD to Maclin bear in mind that he saw a defender blitzing to his blind side. He rolled to his right rather than throwing to get away from the blitzing defender to buy himself more time. Sure, Bryce Brown went offer to block but Foles couldn’t be sure that they block would be made.

PaoliBulldog

I didn’t get to see all of Foles’ passes, but what I did see was encouraging. After all, he’s playing behind that horrible offensive line, so he was running for dear life most of the time. And still made several very good throws.

BlackDynamite

Why not include the play where he threw it directly to a Cowboys player but there was a defensive penalty negating the pick? Or the pick behind Desean that was returned for a TD? Oddly selective analysis here.

southy

Play 4: Is the CB peeling off of Desean already because Foles is winding up and staring down his check down, or was he letting him run through the zone? We can’t really tell from the photo.

professor619

what about some plays from Vick… sure he was 6 of 9 for 70 yards and ran for 30 yards but he was moving the offense pretty well until he was knocked out of the game… plus that TD pass to cooper and the catch cooper made was pretty incredible if you ask me

aub32

I would have liked to see more of his negative plays. This is my favorite article every week, but it seems like you chose to highlight his ups more than give a fair amount of both ups and downs. My main interest was to see if Foles has a habit of predetermining where he is going to go with the ball ahead of time. It would explain the Spencer pick (called back), play #4 and play #5 (which looking at the picture doesn’t seem like a throw he should make. I may be wrong, but it seems to me Mac has a defender all over him with a safety coming over top. Although I get where the argument could be made Foles saw Claiborne struggling and decided to take his chances.) Hopefully, this week will provide more information.

Sponsor Content

On Tuesday Dr. Andrew Star, medical director of Abington Health’s Orthopedic and Spine Institute answered viewer’s live questions and gave advice about knee pain. He discussed both conservative and surgical More >>

Kennett Square’s Longwood Gardens is oft-favored for its world-class floral displays and bountiful gardens. However, the horticulture haven is also a go-to for dazzling jazz, organ, classical and world music More >>

In celebration of Philadelphia magazine’s 11th Annual Trailblazer Award and with the aid of TD Bank, we’re recognizing the most accomplished, extraordinary women in Philadelphia. Here, we pick the brains of More >>